Day 8 - Nashville: Killing Time

In the morning, the youth minister from my church took one of the teens and the bus driver. They went in search of food, and returned with McDonald's breakfast food, orange juice, and milk. They also returned with news. There was a basic choice we could follow--we could stay for a while in Nashville and kill time waiting for a replacement bus from Tennessee, or we could head for Cincinnati, where we could meet up with a replacement bus from Ohio. The decision was made not to keep us on a hot bus, but to wait in Nashville. After we ate breakfast, we were informed of the decision not to continue homeward until we had a bus with working air conditioning.

There would be an activity provided to occupy our time, one of the best activities possible for killing time with a group of over 20 teenagers--the mall. We rode in the original bus to the Opry Mills Shopping Center in Nashville. Again we split into groups, but rather than require adults to be in each group, the so-called "chaperones" were simply people carrying cellular phones. That included almost everybody, so phone numbers were exchanged to keep everybody in touch.

The mall sprawled across acres, all of it indoors, all of it air conditioned. My sandals, which I wore to keep my feet cool on the original bus, occasionally flopped off my feet as I walked, but I managed not to trip. I had gotten used to this during the week, since Hilltop Rescue never let us wear dirty work boots upstairs in the sleeping areas. We had all kinds of fun.

In the Bass Master store, we tested flashlights that operated on power generated by shaking them. I saw a solar and dynamo-powered radio flashlight combination, we looked at a travel poker set the size of a small briefcase, and we examined all kinds of travel drinkware, hunting accessories, and more. We visited a sports souvenir store where everything was autographed and therefore expensive. Some of the teens allowed professional masseuses to give them free 5-minute massage therapy sessions.

We ate in the food court, and I returned to a souvenir store that sold American flags, patriotic memorabilia, and sports team merchandise. I bought two replica embroidered patches, a gold star, and a "NASA" patch.

Afraid that we would arrive late in Ohio, some of the teens discussed the length of the trip. I mentioned that when we returned to Ohio, my watch would be correct. The current time was only 1:00 P.M., I stated. We would not be very late in Ohio.